Salisbury routs Fayette on Senior Night

Monday

Oct 15, 2012 at 12:00 PM

Chuck Embree, MI Sports Reporter

With the return of Austin Francis to his starting role as quarterback for the first time this 2012 football season after recovering from a foot injury sustained last summer, Austin Wyatt accepted his change of duties without hesitation.

Wyatt went from being a key wide receiver the past two seasons to suddenly learning the ropes of becoming quarterback for his first time this year due to Francis being hurt.

During Salisbury’s Week 8 game against Fayette, Wyatt once again went into unchartered territory to serve as Panthers’ tailback, and again he did not disappoint Salisbury fans.

The agile 6’4 senior Wyatt ran for 66 yards and a rushing touchdown. He made a 30-yard catch that went for a score, and Wyatt returned a punt for another touchdown in helping Class 1 8th-ranked Salisbury earn a 56-6 home win against their Lewis & Clark Conference rival on Senior Night.

“I am very proud of our kids. We’ve had to fight through a lot of injuries, forcing us to place kids into positions that they were not accustomed to playing and recently we’ve been fighting the flu and had just 26 kids in practice for a few days,” said Salisbury football coach Kirk Stott. “Our kids were willing to go along with the changes we (coaches) proposed. They all were wiling to do what ever it takes to make the team better given the circumstances at hand.”

“This was an extra special Senior Night. Not only did this cap off our seniors’ 4-year career of not getting beaten at home during the regular season, but they have gone through a season without having a dear friend and teammate of theirs around - Curtis Stallo - who was killed two years ago in a tractor accident. Curtis would have been a senior this year, and our senior class of football players dedicated this season to Curtis and his family. Our team captains carry his jersey with them to every coin toss and then they place it on the team bench for every football game to remember him by.”

Salisbury (7-1, 3-1 LCC) scored 23 points in the opening period, led 48-0 against the Falcons by halftime, and the jayvee unit reached the end zone in the fourth quarter for the final score.Senior fullback Jake Latamondeer rushed 19 times for 89 yards, including two TDs.

Francis threw for 172 yards completing 8-of-14 passes and four touchdowns in his late season debut as quarterback. He connected with Alec Wilson twice for two touchdown passes that netted a total of 66 yards. Zach Wyatt and Garrett Carothers both had two receptions going for 43 and 23 yards respectively. The Wyatt twins’ cousin Keegan Wyatt had a 10-yard catch in the game.

“This was our plans, our hopes that Austin would be recovered well enough from his summer injury well enough and ready to step in to play quarterback, a position. I believe he is pretty much as close to 100-percent as he can get. Austin Wyatt did a great job stepping up to play quarterback for us these first seven games of the season and did a phenomenal job, and we moved him to ,” said coach Stott. “This made our backfield a stronger threat now having our big fullback Jake Latamondeer, Austin Wyatt who has speed and can catch or throw the football, and now Francis back and him being a dual threat as quarterback.”

This really makes us a team harder to defend now as we wind down the regular season and go for districts. Austin did not skip a beat in him throwing the football. Pretty much every pass was on target and he ran the offense very well too. His first throw of the season was a play-action pass to Alec Wilson for a touchdown.

Fayette’s record falls to 2-6 overall and 1-3 in conference play.Salisbury wraps up its regular season playing Oct. 19 at Paris.